Note: This is not a complete fix, but more of a hack to get internet working on client VM’s when bridged networking does not allow client VM’s to access the internet.

After switching a Windows XP VM to bridged ethernet, the XP VM was no longer able to access the internet. I found a few solutions to this problem and this one seems to be the easiest.

To fix the loss of internet when using a bridged adapter on Virtualbox, configure the VM to have both a NAT and Bridged ethernet adapter. (see the screenshots below). To do this select the VM (must be powered off), click the settings button and then navigate to the network section of the Settings wizard. Configure Adapter 1 to bridged and then enable and configure Adapter 2 to be NAT. Press OK to save the changes and then turn on the VM. Give it a few seconds for the resources to be provisioned. You should now have access to both local and internet resources from the VM.

The NAT interface will be used to connect to internet resources, while the bridged adapter will be used to connect to local resources. This allows you to RDP or console into the VM from other computers on your local network and still have internet access on the VM.